Thursday, September 6. 2012

Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to extend well-wishes on the occasion of Id al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
He did so despite the fact that Abbas continues to shun negotiations with the Jewish state and again has threatened to pursue a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September.

Netanyahu’s “goodwill gesture” reportedly was followed by similar phone calls to Abbas by Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Molcho also called PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad.
The calls came on the heels of other goodwill gestures made by Israel over the last few months aimed at coaxing the Palestinians back to the negotiating table; including, but not limited to:

1. The issuance of thousands of additional Israeli work permits to Palestinian laborers;
2. The advance to the PA on the eve of Ramadan of approximately NIS 200 million in levies collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians so that government salaries could be paid;
3. The signing of an economic accord with the PA in order to enhance trade;
4. The signing of a deal to end a hunger strike by Palestinians jailed in Israel, in which Israel even agreed to allow convicted terrorists to pursue academic studies;
5. The tabling of an offer, confirmed by PA Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqe, to release in four stages 125 Palestinian security prisoners, many of whom were convicted of murdering Israelis (the proposal was summarily rejected by Abbas, who demanded the prisoners be released simultaneously);
6. The transfer to the PA of the bodies of approximately 90 deceased terrorists, whose remains subsequently were glorified en masse in official ceremonies.

Tuesday, September 4. 2012

===
To all Freeman Center members and supporters and all Lovers of Zion
We wish you a wonderful Shana Tova (Jewish New Year) filled with Joy, Health, Peace, Prosperity, Sweetness, Love and Security in the coming year.

Please remember all our hard work with a tax deductible contribution toward our continued success in 5773. Please contribute to The Freeman Center's essential educational activities.
Mail check to address above or by paypal:
http://www.freeman.org/paypal.htm
Thank you.....Bernard
--------THE DAYS OF AWE (5773)
By Bernard J. Shapiro
Chairman and Editor of all Publications

As we approach the New Year 5773, I am reflecting over lifetime surpassing the biblical three score (20) and ten. I have seen a lot, learned a lot, suffered and been redeemed a lot. I am not a perfect Jew. I have many failings. The worst, I imagine, is my failure to understand Jewish ritual.

Since I was very young, I never seemed to follow authority. It didn’t matter who it was: parent, political or religious leader. I was born a rebel and have been a rebel all my life. I was greatly influence by my grandfather, Harry W. Freeman, who had studied to be a Rabbi in the Russian-Polish Pale at the end of the 19th century. Like many young Jews of that period, he joined the Communist Party to overthrow the Czar. They believed that the Jews must be freed from the oppression and persecution that affected their daily life.

The Czar’s secret police blessed him by driving him out of country and he escaped to America. This saved him from Nazi extermination and thus I live today by that Mazal. He landed in Galveston, became an attorney and founded the first chapter of ZOA in Houston as the real solution to the "Jewish Question."